Will Smith, Denzel Washington Ranked Among Most Valuable Movie Stars

Hollywood heavyweights Will Smith and Denzel Washington were ranked in the top five of the 100 most valuable stars in Hollywood.

Vulture.com rated the artists on their income nationally and globally, number of Oscars, magazine cover, tabloid value, studio value, critics score and fan likability.

Strangely enough, Will Smith was ranked No. 2 behind Robert Downey Jr. (really?!?) despite the fact that he’s known as the biggest box-office draw, both domestically and internationally, of the past 20 years. The site attributed Smith’s placement to his four-year movie hiatus as he focused on his children’s careers. But he produced his son Jaden’s blockbuster remake of Karate Kid (Jaden, by the way, was ranked No. 67). Smith showed no rust as Men in Black 3 raked in a colossal $436.6 million, making this Smith’s highest grossing film internationally of the sci-fi trilogy.

Of the 100 stars considered to be valuable in Hollywood, only one black female made an appearance on the list — and she considers herself Hispanic. Zoe Saldana is ranked No. 99, although she was the lead character in the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar. It was a blessing and a curse, because most people don’t know that the female lead was Saldana because she was completely motion captured

Denzel Washington is ranked very high on the list for reasons very different from Smith. He is a two-time Academy Award winner and universally considered among the crème de la crème of actors. Additionally, every film of the past decade (except The Great Debaters) he appeared in has grossed over $50 million, making him one of the most dependable and consistent stars at the box office and putting him at No. 4 on the list. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was much further down on the list.

Samuel L. Jackson, the man who is the holder of the Guinness Book of World Records as the most commercially successful actor ever, did not make the list.